Promoting Girls’ Education in Bengal

Harasankar Adhikari

This year (2025), an official source stated that 555,950 girls, out of around 984,000 students, appeared for the Secondary Examination (Madhyamik) in West Bengal. It is significant that the female literacy rate of West Bengal has increased. ‘The literacy rate of females in West Bengal grew from 36.56% in 1981 to 46.56% in 1991, 60.22% in 2001, and 71.16% in 2011, according to the Census. In 2023, the female literacy rate in rural areas is 72.6, while in urban areas it is 84.7.’

The government in rule claims that ‘Kanyashree’ and ‘Sabuj Sathi’ are generous efforts for the above success. ‘Kanyashree’ usually offers annually one thousand rupees to girls between the age group of 13-18 years. So, a girl may get this facility when she reaches class VIII standard. The amount of direct cash transfer under this scheme is very nominal compared to the cost of education in today’s education market. Secondly, the ‘Sabuj Sathi’ scheme is ‘for distribution of bicycles to the students of class IX to XII in all government-run/government-aided/government-sponsored schools. Both of these schemes are entitled to the girl students of Govt. Run/Govt. Aided/Govt. Sponsored schools only.

May it be a true credit of the government for this improvement of girls’ education, or is it political propaganda for political gain or vote business?

It is evident that the overall education system (from school education to the university level) suffers from several lacks, i.e., poor administration, school job scams, mid-day meal scams, and also the latest but not the least, the ‘Sabuj Sathi’ scam, etc. The school teachers are either incapable of teaching or they are undutiful in their profession. Most of the pupils depend on private tuition, even in remote areas. In fact, education is now a big investment for the parents for the ranking of their wards. Evidently, parents bear a handsome monthly cost for their girl child’s education (when the amount of ‘Kanyashree’ is very low) regardless of their economy, and it is a trend that without private tuition, not a single student will reach the goal of a higher grade. The quality of education or learning capacity is a big question in the present context.

It is evident that numerous influential factors are associated with this. Firstly, a change of parental attitude towards girls’ education is the foremost. Parents of all backgrounds gradually change their mindset about girls from liabilities to assets in their families. Further, these girls are mostly second-generation learners, and their parents adopted small family norms, and the sex determination of the foetus has been restricted. Social circumstances have been gradually changing so that girls are more concerned about parental care in their old age than the boys (male child) in a family. Further, in rural Bengal, the male child is not interested in accessing higher education because of the unemployment scenario of the state. Higher education is a waste of time for the boys of especially lower middle classes or lower class people of West Bengal. So, they have to migrate even at the age of 15 years to different states of India in search of jobs in various unorganized or informal sectors. They also support their sister’s education. Parents have changed their mindset to avoid girls’ underage marriage.

So, at the grassroots level, parents have realized the importance of women’s equity and justice through girls’ education. Is it not a significant impact of globalisation?

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 38, March 16 - 22, 2025